Doe. No. 75. 53 



li^Ticulttire, the recognition of this fundamental axiom has led to new and 

 important discoveries calculated to improve the method of administering 

 government to a people. Witness, for instance, what has been achieved 

 in connexion with this subject within the last ten years, in the United 

 States — thanks to the great genius of Clinton, who, if not the originator 

 of the project for constructing tlie Erie canal, in the State of New York, 

 had at least the sagacity and discrimination to foresee the probable re- 

 sults, and to devise a plan accordingly, which proved to be the most 

 lucrative and beneficial for the people that had ever been thought of be- 

 fore his time; a plan which produced similar results in Pennsylvania and 

 Ohio, and which was finally adopted by other States, as the only one 

 capable of carrying out the views of their respective governments in mat- 

 ters of public interest. 



Let it not be supposed that my recommendation of this plan, while I 

 have not even yet explained any of its features, is the result of l)lind ad- 

 miration of whatever presents itself to my eyes, or the effect of indiscreet 

 wonder, caused by the contemplation of objects hitherto unknown to me. 

 I am not a blind admirer of everything I see in the United States. I 

 find there some things that are truly great and wonderful, which, in 

 my belief, are deserving of being imitated as tending to benefit the people. 

 Among these, I would instance the administrative plan of Clinton. I 

 also find abuses and deformities, which I should desire never to see in- 

 troduced in my country. There is no government nor race of people per- 

 fect in this world. 



Many travellers have written lately on the United States, but not one 

 of them has paid the least attention to the subject about which I am going 

 to speak. This was probably owing to the absence of a positive interest 

 to stimulate the writers to make inquiries and to seek for informal ion. 

 From the moment I conceived the idea of writing this memorial, I saw 

 the necessity of procuring the most reliable data. This has enabled me 

 to ascertain many facts which, at the present day, nobody ever thinks of 

 inquiring into, most people being generally satisfied with admiring the 

 effects that have resulted from causes not now understood or cared for. 

 With a little labor, I have succeeded in collecting together a mass of doc- 

 uments relative to the construction of the Erie canal, comprising, among 

 other things, the first memorial of Mr. Chnton, in which he points out 

 the advantages that would accrue to the State of New York by under- 

 taking the execution of the work on her own account. In this memorial, 

 I found ail that I could have desired for the object I had in view. In it 

 I saw distinctly what that great man aimed at: 



1st. To create a territorial and commercial wealth in a tract of land, 

 which until then had been looked upon as useless and almost barren. 



2d. That the revenue of the canal should be made to cancel the debt 

 incurred by the costs of construction ; after which, the work itself and the 

 products thereof would serve to fill the coffers of the State treasury, and 

 relieve the people from the burden of taxation. 



Having witnessed with my own eyes the realization of both these ob- 

 jects, and being convinced of the possibility of establishing a communi- 

 cation between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans,, through the medium of a 

 canal in the State of Nicaragua, I was naturally led to inquire, by con- 

 centrating all the faculties of my mind upon the subject, whether the ex- 

 ecution of such an undertaking could be made to produce the same results 



